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TrekToday - Gerrold Thinks Reinvention Will Help Original Series

Gerrold Thinks Reinvention Will Help Original Series

Original series writer and science fiction novelist David Gerrold believes that a reinvention of classic Star Trek may be necessary for the series to survive, and believes that limited remastering of the early episodes has improved them.

Speaking to Australia's Courier Mail, Gerrold said he hasn't been greatly impressed by the Trek spinoff series, which he believes lost what was important about the original - made with cheesy special effects and unimpressive costumes, but engaging actors and powerful storylines. His position in new book Boarding the Enterprise is "that just about everything that can be said about Star Trek has been said."

"They've analysed the science, and they've analysed the spirituality, and they've analysed the poetry, and they've analysed the music, and they've analysed the jokes," continued Gerrold, who wrote "The Trouble With Tribbles" when he was still very young. "I mean, after a while it's like, for God's sake, it's just a TV show!"

Gerrold believes the success of the original series can be attributed to the "remarkable cast" and "the context of Star Trek...here's a world where everybody is respected and everybody has a place in this world." He does not believe the later series successfully recreated this formula, asking the question, "'what does it mean to be a human being?'" The emphasis shifted to problems and fighting in later series, but "it's not the costumes, and it's not the props, and it's not the special effects...it's in the storytelling. Storytelling has to be about the human adventure."

The Hugo Award-winning Gerrold, who claims he was interested in ecology before the word "ecology" was invented, said he appreciated the spin-off "Trials and Tribbleations" on Deep Space Nine and is pleased by the news that Star Trek XI will likely focus on Kirk and Spock in their youth. "If it were my choice I would reinvent the original series," he said. "I think there's a possibility, just as we've see different interpretations of Superman and Batman, maybe that's how Star Trek is gonna survive."

In addition, Gerrold thinks that the remastered episodes make the original series look "not embarrassingly bad any more" but believes he might have gone too far in updating, which "would've jarred the original...these things are what they are. You allow it to remain a period piece."